Astron engine theory

So I'm looking into some ideas for saving money on the engine side of my build and I may have come across something, though I think somebody's already thought of it. I come from a decidedly VW background and the watercooled 4-cylinders all share the same family, including the diesels. This means that the diesels, turbos especially, are a cheap source of stronger internals, though you have to machine down the pistons, and turbo setups. And lo and behold the Mitsubishi Astron family of engines have diesel counterparts. So I'm wondering if I might be able to salvage some parts from a 4D56t as 3rd and 4th gen Delicas are a common enough sight where I live, especially when compared to Starions/Conquests.

I doubt the cranks will be any stronger and more than likely if you're going from a newer generation engine to an earlier one the journals will be massively different. Here's the crazy thing - a stock bottom end of the 4G54 engine is good for 600 hp. They are tough biatches. The heads on them are an extremely restrictive design but chucking a turbo on them opens the scope of power development substantially. If you've had a perusal of some of the performance mod threads you'll see the HKS 134 twin cam variant of the 2.6 destroked to a 2.3 and made some serious power in naturally aspirated form. I think the mix and match is do-able but it will be one of those things where you'll need a test crank and a set of micrometers and verniers to compare dimensions (I've heard of the crank from a Nissan CA20E being lightly machined up to build stroker BMW 2002 bottom ends...)

Stock N/A? Damn!

Well the pistons might be good for high comp N/A ones if you machine them down a bit if nothing else, as the bore is the same. I will end up with a spare motor at the end of my project if nothing else, so I might have room to experiment.

*disclaimer - the HKS Works engine developed 276 HP in N/A form. Big jump over the factory SOHC output of 98(?)ish HP. Destroking the 4G54 seems a bit 'wasteful' but if you've even driven something with the now near extinct 4G52 2 litre engine, the 2 litre is more responsive and quite happy to rev when given a dose of right foot - so that is a fair call on destroking. The stock inlet manifolds are bad for performance as well (2 different length intake runners?). Check out some of the performance mods like balance shaft deletion, porting and head work, changes to the intake side of things and even EDIS ignition. There are good gains to be made not only in HP but fuel economy as well.

the stock 2.6 parts can surprise... probably enough to surpass whatever you might wanna do with a truck
we have a starion clubmember go 9.5sec 1/4 mile on untouched stock cyl head (with perf cam of course)
another dynod 400hp on stock crappy TBI intake manifold & stock exhaust manifold